AWOL is a project of Charles E. Jones, Tombros Librarian for Classics and Humanities at the Pattee Library, Penn State University

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique /early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.

AWOL is syndicated to Facebook and Twitter.